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Turning a smartphone into a Wi-Fi hotspot is nothing new, unless you have an iPhone. Today, June Fabrics released PdaNet, a jailbreak app that turns any iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot regardless of what network happens to be available. Obviously, an Edge connection will be painfully slow, but a decent 3G signal should provide enough bandwidth for most users to surf the web comfortably. According to June Fabric’s website, “PdaNet provides the fastest connection speed possible from your data service and data signal.”

With PdaNet, users can enjoy the freedom of a personal Wi-Fi hub without the additional cost that most tethering plans bring with them. Some users may not want to create a Wi-Fi hotspot in a crowded coffee shop. If this is the case, users can connect an iPhone to a laptop via USB cable. A desktop client is required for this type of connection, luckily both Mac and Windows versions are available.

According to PdaNet’s twitter feed, an iPad version is in the works. This is good news for iPad users. iOS 4.2 beta 2 was recently released to developers and the tethering preference that was present in earlier versions had been removed. This feature might have been removed by mistake, but it’s more likely that Apple removed it because of pressure from AT&T. We’ll just have to wait till November to find out if tethering makes it back into iOS 4.2 for iPad.